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Carrion attorneys press witness

By Alana Melanson, amelanson@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
06/28/2014 08:38:46 AM EDT

WORCESTER -- Defense attorneys for two Fitchburg brothers accused of murdering two Fitchburg teens blasted the older brother of one of the victims Friday for inconsistencies in his statements and the immunity deal he received for testifying.

Ronny Genao, 23, of Leominster, is testifying in exchange for immunity from prosecution for his role in the melee that followed a Sept. 6, 2009, after-hours party at 96 Mechanic St., Fitchburg, where his younger brother, Pedro Genao, 17, and their friend, Nelson Geraldino, 18, were killed.

Brothers Jose Carrion, 32, and Orville Carrion, 27, are each charged with two counts of murder and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the teens' deaths.

Genao has testified that he hit a gun-wielding Orville Carrion with a machete in an attempt to disarm him.

Elliot Weinstein, Jose Carrion's attorney, grilled Ronny Genao about who he was with, the order of events and inconsistencies in his statements to police. Ronny Genao said repeatedly that he did not remember what he told police and that he was medicated, having been interviewed after surgery for his own gunshot wounds. He said it took him a few years to piece what he does remember together.

"It took you a few years to figure out what you were going to say to the jury," Weinstein said.

Judge Daniel Wrenn told jurors to disregard that comment.

Weinstein also blasted Ronny Genao for taking the immunity deal.

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"In fact, you weren't going to say anything in this courtroom unless you got an order of immunity from these prosecutors," Weinstein said.

Gertrudis Peguero, of Leominster, mother of Ronny and Pedro Genao, briefly took the stand to answer a few questions about her family with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter, while a photo of her dead son was displayed.

Peguero's voice wavered as she spoke of Pedro, who had just started his junior year of high school at the time he was killed. He would be 22 today if he were alive, she said.

During Peguero's brief testimony, a young woman she had been sitting with in the courtroom ran out crying.

Dr. Faryl Sandler, a forensic pathologist with the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, testified on the results of the autopsy she performed on Geraldino.

Sandler said Geraldino suffered from five stab wounds to the front and back of his torso, including one that penetrated his right heart ventricle, causing blood to fill the pericardial sac, a fibrous tissue that surrounds the heart and allows it to expand and contract. Another stab wound penetrated his liver, she said.

Geraldino also suffered one gunshot to the middle of his left thigh, Sandler said. The bullet traveled across the leg, shattering the femur, she said, and was recovered from just under the skin on the lower inner thigh.

Sandler said his death was caused by the stab wounds that penetrated his heart and liver and the resulting blood loss, as well as contributory blood loss from the gunshot wound to his leg.

According to a toxicology report prepared by a lab outside of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, she said, Geraldino's blood alcohol level was .13 percent.

Weinstein asked if a different method of measuring a blood-alcohol level, using plasma, would show that 100 micrograms of alcohol per deciliter of blood could be considered a potentially toxic amount.

Sandler said she is not a toxicologist and that is not the method her lab uses, and that she is not qualified to translate from one method to the other. She did say, however, that there is no set amount of alcohol that is toxic, because it ranges greatly from person to person and their level of experience with alcohol.

Ronny Genao testified Wednesday that he had seen the Carrions repeatedly kick Geraldino all over his body while he lay injured on the driveway.

Weinstein asked Sandler if there was any evidence of trauma that may result from being kicked repeatedly. She said a protruding tooth and correlating lip contusion and laceration suggested blunt force impact to Geraldino's face, but did not find anything elsewhere on his body. However, Sandler said, there isn't always visible evidence and factors such as clothing thickness and force of the blows could come into play.

The trial will continue at 9 a.m. Monday. Wrenn said he expects the case to be handed over to the jury for deliberation by Thursday.

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